Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Lesson 27: Tone vs. Character--Garden State: the final smackdown
First off, I am honored now to be among the august company of some witty Hoboken-based bloggers.
And now, a gratuitous New Jersey reference.
Watching Garden State put me in a wild state of longing...for other, better movies.
There are lots of things that Garden State does well: genius casting, from shifty-eyed Peter Sarsgaard to the quietly volcanic Ian Holm. Gorgeous, David Hockney cinematography. There's a dreamy, anachronistic feel to the movie that makes you want to fall in love with it (the music helps tons), and the style and the tone are so strong, it's easy to get sucked in.
But don't get sucked in, because this is a cutesy poo movie made by a gifted man who deliberately chose to leave the genuine darkness of his story on the cutting room floor--or literally, offscreen.
Here's where the movie breaks down: Zach Braff, who wrote, directed, and starred in the movie, plays a 20something actor who has managed to hack out a Hollywood acting career successful enough so that people in his hometown recognize him as "that retarded quarterback," a role he played well enough that his sweetheart, Natalie Portman, thought he was actually retarded. (One does have to wonder when and if the mental health activists are going to go off on Mr. Braff.)
Talk about backhanded and insenstive compliments. "Gee, you're so talented, you can play a retarded person, when you're not retarded!" Braff shrugs this off, explaining that he's been on heavy antidepressants FOR NINE YEARS, prescribed by his controlling father, played by Ian Holm. The resulting numbness makes him ideal to play spacy or retarded people.
If this were a Tim Burton movie, this might fly. But for all of its dreamy feel, this is a movie that wants to be about real people experiencing real things. So several questions arise:
1)How the hell, if he hasn't seen or even talked to his father, does Zach Braff manage to renew his med prescriptions?
2)Why, when Braff is allegedly a 25-year-old adult, did he keep RENEWING the prescriptions, when he clearly loathes his father and believes the drugs weren't necessary?
3) Where can I get that health plan?
4) Is Braff actually saying that acting is such a lame-ass profession that you can be deeply medicated and almost without affect--and still become famous enough to become recognized in your home town?
5)Finally, when Braff decides to stop taking his meds, he experiences virtually NO side effects other than a freaky spin the bottle montage. What drug could this possibly be?
The answer is, Zach Braff, who used to make music videos, decided to allow the major tones of his movie--lyrical, sweet, child-like, to override what the characters are actually saying and doing. And he's a talented enough filmmaker to pull it off...sometimes.
Think about it: This is the sweetest movie about a guy who robs graves (including the grave of his best friend's mother), a woman who compulsively kills her pets, a psychiatrist who probably let his paralyzed wife drown, and a bellboy who works as a pseudo-pimp and fence you'll ever see. In a particuarly strange way, Zach Braff the filmmaker is much like his character in the film: he's dissassociated from the reality around him, and he used, not drugs, but music video tricks to get there.
And now, a gratuitous New Jersey reference.
Watching Garden State put me in a wild state of longing...for other, better movies.
There are lots of things that Garden State does well: genius casting, from shifty-eyed Peter Sarsgaard to the quietly volcanic Ian Holm. Gorgeous, David Hockney cinematography. There's a dreamy, anachronistic feel to the movie that makes you want to fall in love with it (the music helps tons), and the style and the tone are so strong, it's easy to get sucked in.
But don't get sucked in, because this is a cutesy poo movie made by a gifted man who deliberately chose to leave the genuine darkness of his story on the cutting room floor--or literally, offscreen.
Here's where the movie breaks down: Zach Braff, who wrote, directed, and starred in the movie, plays a 20something actor who has managed to hack out a Hollywood acting career successful enough so that people in his hometown recognize him as "that retarded quarterback," a role he played well enough that his sweetheart, Natalie Portman, thought he was actually retarded. (One does have to wonder when and if the mental health activists are going to go off on Mr. Braff.)
Talk about backhanded and insenstive compliments. "Gee, you're so talented, you can play a retarded person, when you're not retarded!" Braff shrugs this off, explaining that he's been on heavy antidepressants FOR NINE YEARS, prescribed by his controlling father, played by Ian Holm. The resulting numbness makes him ideal to play spacy or retarded people.
If this were a Tim Burton movie, this might fly. But for all of its dreamy feel, this is a movie that wants to be about real people experiencing real things. So several questions arise:
1)How the hell, if he hasn't seen or even talked to his father, does Zach Braff manage to renew his med prescriptions?
2)Why, when Braff is allegedly a 25-year-old adult, did he keep RENEWING the prescriptions, when he clearly loathes his father and believes the drugs weren't necessary?
3) Where can I get that health plan?
4) Is Braff actually saying that acting is such a lame-ass profession that you can be deeply medicated and almost without affect--and still become famous enough to become recognized in your home town?
5)Finally, when Braff decides to stop taking his meds, he experiences virtually NO side effects other than a freaky spin the bottle montage. What drug could this possibly be?
The answer is, Zach Braff, who used to make music videos, decided to allow the major tones of his movie--lyrical, sweet, child-like, to override what the characters are actually saying and doing. And he's a talented enough filmmaker to pull it off...sometimes.
Think about it: This is the sweetest movie about a guy who robs graves (including the grave of his best friend's mother), a woman who compulsively kills her pets, a psychiatrist who probably let his paralyzed wife drown, and a bellboy who works as a pseudo-pimp and fence you'll ever see. In a particuarly strange way, Zach Braff the filmmaker is much like his character in the film: he's dissassociated from the reality around him, and he used, not drugs, but music video tricks to get there.
